installing a touch screen?

[excalibur313]

Has anyone tried installing touch screens into macbook or macbook pros? I just saw this nifty site: http://www.magictouch.com/builtin.html and I think they have touch screens that would fit the mbp. You would just have to do something fancy with wiring up the usb, but other than that it looks pretty simple. (Oh yeah, they only have windows and linux drivers so that might be a problem...)

 

[mkrishnan]

Well, someone is doing it now....

http://eshop.macsales.com/shop/ModBook

Also there used to be someone who did this with a wide variety of Macs -- I think they both modified yours and sold existing modified ones

A number of people have also done car-based Macs with small (7-10") touchscreen LCDs. 🙂

 

[munckee]

This is sorta related. The Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (in NYC) currently has the "Design Life Now" exhibit. One of the pieces in the exhibit used an ACD set up as a touch screen (no, it wasn't part of the exhibit, it was hooked up to a mini and was displaying the design item in question). I had no idea that an ACD could be used as a touch screen. It did look like it had some sort of film applied to the screen, but I wasn't certain if that was the part that made it touch-sensitive, or if it was just there to protect against lots of grubby fingers.

 

[iMeowbot]

If you want to keep the original form factor, someone like Troll Touch can do the job.

 

[mkrishnan]

If you want to keep the original form factor, someone like Troll Touch can do the job.

Yeah, this was the company I was trying to remember! 🙂

 

[szsiddiq]

They actually also have OS X drivers! These are the touch screens im using for my tablet mod. They work pretty well, but are about .25" thick, so don't think about installing it without thickening your notebook (unless you're trying to tabletify it like I am).

Their Mac drivers are much less developed than their windows/linux drivers. you've 2 options: 1: when you touch the screen, it counts as a click (u can drag the cursor around, but it'd be like moving a mouse around with a button clicked) and 2: when you let go of the scree it counts as a click.

So overall, the hardware is nice and accurate, but the drivers are a bit crippled. Still the best option for DIY projects. It's essentially a slab of glass with the given dimensions with a small ribbon cable that sticks out of the side. That ribbon plugs into a small controller and the controller plugs into a usb port.

Also, their touch screens wont exactly fit the MBP, as none of their screens are wide screen dimensions. Doesn't mean you can't use it, but you will have a but of untouchable screen space🙁

Best of luck to ya!

 

[plux79]

if you guys went to Bellagio in Vegas, there is this chocolate factory with the chocolate fountain. This shop uses the cinema display with touch screen capabilities to display their products.

 

[mkrishnan]

if you guys went to Bellagio in Vegas, there is this chocolate factory with the chocolate fountain. This shop uses the cinema display with touch screen capabilities to display their products.

I think I was paying too much attention to the chocolate to notice the computers. 😛